Fuel shutoff



W. E. PROCTOR FUEL SHUT-OFF Oct. 23, 1951 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 Filed July 12, 1946 gvwa/wtom Oct. 23, 1951 w. E'. PROCTOR FUEL SHUT-OFF 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 Filed July 12, 1946 III, VIII Patented Oct. 23, 1951 UN lTE-D STATES PATENT OFFICE FUEL SHU'IOFF William E. Proctor, Baltimore, Md.

Application July 12, 1946, Serial No. 683,257

(01. lav- 153) 1 Claim. 1,

This invention relates to fuel shut-ofis and has for its principal object the provision of a simple and efficient system for shutting oil the supply of fuel oil to a fuel oil fired marine boiler upon the water line in the boiler dropping to a dangerous degree.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a. schematic view of the full layout.

Figure 2 is a view of the cut-off valve largely in section.

Figure 3 is a section through the regulating element.

In Figure l the furnaces are numbered 10, the boilers H and the fuel oil line is [2, leading to the several burners I5. A regulating element of well-known type; such for example as illustrated in Figure 2, of my Patent No. 2,326,559, has a sampling pipe I! extending into the boiler and has a body 18 which has four ports one of which leads down to the sampling pipe I! extending below the normal water level. The upper port is connected to a pipe 20 which is a drainto the filter tank or heater and thetwoside ports lead respectively to a pipe 2| joined to the fuel shut-off valve 22 and to a pipe 25 which leads to the signal 5 and alarm port 26. It is usual to place a 125- pound relief valve such as 28 in this line which leads also to the feed water control valves not shown. The line 30 leads from the fuel oil heater and the fuel oil pump discharge and may have the usual relief valve 3| in it.

In Figure 3 is shown a boiler water level regulator, now well-known, in which the pressure in the central chamber varies with the wetness of the steam entering thru the sampling pipe at the bottom and flowing to the chamber thru an inlet orifice which is standard for all working pressures of the boiler. The size of the outlet orifice, near the top of the regulator, varies with the desired working pressure, and could be, for ease of description, five times the area of the inlet orifice. Steam and water flow constantly from the boiler thru the sampling pipe, the inlet orifice, the chamber, the outlet orifice and discharge pipe 20 to the water barrel, hot well or other receiver. Formerly one of the two horizontal side pipes from the chamber was capped and the other led to a feed water regulating valve thru the panel 26. Here we use both side pipes but neither has a fiow therein; they both carry pressure alone and are always filled with water below the level of the middle of the chamber if the steam is relatively dry and are entirely full of water if the chamber itself is filled with water; "is

as would be the case if the boiler water level were high.

First assume a low water level "in the boiler, i. e. below the open bottom of the sampling tube. Dry steam passes to the chamber and the pressure there is minimum as the dry steam escapes freely thru the upper outlet orifice. Since pressure in the chamber is minimum, the pressure at the feed water regulator diaphragm (not shown) and the fuel control diaphragm '40 is also minimum. Feed water then fiows freely (it is standard practice for the feed water valve to beheld open by a heavy spring) but the fuel is shut oil at valve disks 4'5 and 46 '(see Figure 2) because in this case the pressure above the diaphragm 4B is overcome by spring '42. With minimum pressure above the diaphragm 40 thefuel valve will always be closed (and locked closed).

Now assume the opposite condition. The water level is now above the holes in the sampling tube, Water alone enters the chamber of the device of Figure 3 which regulates both fuel and feed water, the latter regulation being old, the former new. But because the pressure in "the chamber is less than the pressure in the boiler while the quantity of heat per pound of water is the same, the B. t. u. difference per pound causes a portion of the water to become steam. The resistance offered by the exit or outlet orifice builds up pressure in the chamber and this transmitted pressure overcomes the feed water spring and as usual closes the feed water valve until the boiler water level falls again.

With a. normal boiler water level, the pressure below the inlet orifice at the bottom of the chamber is lower than the boiler pressure by the amount of flow thru the sampling pipe. This causes water to spurt up inside the open bottom end of the sampling pipe mingling with the steam coming laterally thru the side holes of the sampling pipe, increasing the moisture content of the steam and the volume of the mixture in the chamber as part of the water evaporates in the chamber due to the lower temperature and pressure there. The frictional resistance at the outlet orifice thus increases, building up the pressure in the chamber, as the water level in the boiler increases. With a steady water level the regulator admits a pound of feed water for each pound of steam passing from the boiler. The present invention preserves all the old uses of the regulator but uncaps the unused side and connects this side to the fuel cut off valve 22 to operate this valve whenever the boiler water level falls to a danger point. With a high water level the 3 fuel valve is merely held fully open but the feed water valve is shut tight.

It is a feature of my invention to require manual re-setting of the fuel oil valve so that when water is low, while the fuel is automatically shut off, the flow of fuel can not be restored until the cut-oil valve 22 has been manually re-set.

Referring particularly to Figure 2, the pipe 21 leads to a diaphragm chamber in which the diaphragm is 40 on a seat 4| and pressed upwardly by the relatively heavy spring 42. The pressure delivered through pipe 2| overcomes the spring 42, however, and the valve is normally in the position as shown, that is, the two valve disks 45 and 46 are off their seats and so held by the pressure so that fuel oil can pass through the port 48. The valve stem connecting the diaphragm 49 and the double valv 45-46 is preferably in three pieces; an upper stem 50, a lower stem 5! and a contact clevis 53. In the latter is mounted a wheel 54 resting on an arm 55 pivoted as at 56 to the casing of valve 22. A locking lever 58 pivoted as at 59 to the valve casing is normally pressed by spring 60 into lockin position but when the valve stem is down the point 62 of the arm 55 engages the flat end 63 of the locking lever, holding the lever against the urge of its spring. When the pressure in pipe 2| falls by reason of a low water level the spring 42 pushes the movable assembly upward and the arm 55 rises under the urge of its spring 65 and thus the point 62 is caught in the recess 66. The wheel 54 prevents the valve stem from lowering and thus the shut-off valve remains closed until the locking lever 58 is manually released.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

A cut-ofi valve for marine use, including a casing having a pressure chamber at one end for communication with the chamber of a water level regulator and a body at the other end having a port thru which fuel passes, a valve stem having at one end a diaphragm in said pressure chamber of the valve and having at the other end a valve disk closing said port, spring means to bias the valve stem to port closing position, an arm movable with the stem, and a manually releasable means for locking said arm to hold the valve stem in closed position when the stem moves to that position by reason of lowered pressure on the diaphragm, said means including a spring pressed lever parallel to the casing and havin a notch to receive the arm to latch the arm in raised position of said arm, said lever having proximate the notch a smooth surface to engage the end of the arm to permit limited movement without latching.

- WILLIAM E. PROCTOR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 933,880 Brown Sept. 14, 1909 1,020,284 James Mar. 12, 1912 1,032,194 Evans July 9, 1912 1,034,298 Profiitt et a1 July 30, 1912 1,084,425 Hager Jan. 13, 1914 1,084,962 Rebsamen Jan. 20, 1914 1,149,845 Leitz Aug. 10, 1915 1,248,957 Voigt Dec. 4, 1917 1,346,590 Cockburn et a1 July 13, 1920 1,496,990 Kunitz June 10, 1924 1,559,357 ONeill Oct. 27, 1925 1,795,288 Browne Mar. 10, 1931 1,821,112 Muren Sept. 1, 1931 1,851,924 Ramsey Mar. 29, 1932 2,229,543 Bailey Jan. 21, 1941 2,326,559 Proctor Aug. 10, 1943 2,327,055 McMahon Aug. 17, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 378,689 Great Britain Aug. 18, 1932 605.312

Germany Nov. 8, 1984 

